Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!knuth!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg
From: elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM (Eric Lee Green)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: 486 clone vs. Amiga 3000
Message-ID: <00675215513@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM>
Date: 25 May 91 23:51:53 GMT
References: <1991May24.223604.19390@crash.cts.com>
Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home
Lines: 35

From article <1991May24.223604.19390@crash.cts.com>, by uzun@pnet01.cts.com (Roger Uzun):
>
> []
> Around here a 33 Mhz 80486, with 1 floppy a 40Mb HD, 1 Mb of RAM, and
> a VGA monitor costs $2475.00.  This is an AMI motherboard with 64k cache.
> There are cheaper systems available.
> The above system is available from MICRO DEX, in the san diego area.
> (619)467-9305.  It is an ISA system.

Are you sure you're not talking about a 33mhz 80*3*86 system? 33mhz 80486's
only recently became available, I thought.

In any event, note that: with the AMI motherboard, you need at least 2
banks of RAM to do interleaved access (i.e., get decent performance with
that cache), that the 40mb HD you're talking about is probably a cheap
Seacrate MFM or RLL drive with a huge interleave and a peak transfer time
somewhere between a stumble and a crawl, that the VGA controller you're
talking about is the bottom of the line 640x400x16 VGA with about 60
waitstates for each access to its onboard memory (no, I'm  *NOT* joking,
with a fast processor it really DOES need that many wait states)... in
other words, maybe the processor is going fast, but it sure does have a
slimeball of a system built around it!

I must admit that I may buy a '386SX-based laptop portable one of these
days, so that I can write in my accustomed position (laying on my back in
bed :-), but I'm under no delusion that such a system is actually faster
than an Amiga 3000 in everyday use. Raw CPU speed is only one part of what
makes a system a system. Amdahl's Guideline says you ought to have 1mb/sec
I/O bandwidth for every 1 MIPS of performance to get decent overall
throughput, and most PC clones fail badly there.

--
Eric Lee Green   (318) 984-1820  P.O. Box 92191  Lafayette, LA 70509
elg@elgamy.RAIDERNET.COM               uunet!mjbtn!raider!elgamy!elg
   Looking for a job -- need every bit of help I can find :-{.